The Demon's Pa

“Wow,” Caleb said slowly when I was done telling them about what I had been up to since they’d last seen me, “That’s quite some story.”

Alexander smirked, clearly amused at how little I’d actually told them, “Indeed.”

“Why did the let you leave Africa anyway? Aren’t you the property of that- that-” Janessa struggled to find a word vile enough to describe a vampire.

“Zaiden,” I told her, “His name is Zaiden, Janessa. And I told you, he’s very nice.” She made a thoughtful sound that didn’t sound like agreement. “But to answer your question,” I continued before she went on another rage about how bad vampires were, “There’s…” I shook my head, “Something happened, something really bad.”

Paul raised a questioning eyebrow, “Oh? Something worse that having vampires invade our lives and take us as slaves?”

I was defensive before I could stop myself, “Vampires don’t just drink blood you know.” I snapped. “They protect the humans and prevent wars as well. They saved the humans from themselves.”

A moment of silence passed after my little outbreak before Alexander said, “I still don’t like them, they spoil all our fun.”

I shot him a cold glare and he returned a stunning smile. If only my sister, Caleb and Paul knew what he really meant by that.

“And this is why I like this guy.” Paul said as he hit Alexander once on the back.

“So,” Janessa said slowly as she poured boiled water into a mug that already had freshly ground coffee beans in it, “How exactly do the two of you know each other?” She gave me a careful look as she started stirring the coffee.

I, in turn, gave Alexander a sidelong glance and when I saw there was absolutely no expression in his eyes, merely shrugged. Maybe some things were better left unsaid, especially when I wasn’t sure how much of my situation I was allowed to divulge to my family in front of Alexander.

“It’s complicated.” Alexander told Janessa as he took his coffee from her, “Thanks.”

Janessa smiled at him happily, “Pleasure.”

Was that considered a flirty smile? I wasn’t sure, but I suddenly had the urge hiss at Janessa to stay away from Alexander, he was mine, even though he couldn’t remember. I rubbed my temples to try and regain control of myself. What was I thinking? This was my sister for heaven’s sake and she had a boyfriend! This whole situation sucked.

“Ash?” Paul asked sounding concerned, “Are you alright?”

“Fine.” I answered. “I just have a headache.”

Janessa pressed the back of her hand to my forehead to feel my temperature and she frowned, “You aren’t very warm.”

I fell backwards like some moron to try and get away from her before she could realise that I was way too cold to actually have warm blood in my veins. “I-I’m fine.” I stuttered out.

“Well here,” Janessa said after a moment’s hesitation as she put a steaming mug of tea in front of me, “there’s nothing some tea won’t fix.”

I laughed nervously, “Yeah…”

“Well, go on.” Janessa urged.

“What?”

She gestured towards the mug that was in front of me, “Your tea, drink it. Caleb grew those from scratch and they’re the best batch yet.”

“Uh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh.” I gave the cup a doubtful look. Was it even possible for me to drink tea without spitting it out? Human food tasted terrible…

“The coffee was wonderful.” Alexander suddenly said with a bright smile.

My mouth dropped open, “You- you-you…”

“What about me, kitten?” Alexander asked as he moved closer and I forced myself to move away from him.

“You are a jerk.”

He put a hand over his heart in mock hurt, “Your words wound me.”

I snorted loudly, “I wish.”

He chuckled deeply, “Yeah, I’m sure you do, but unfortunately you’re stuck with me as there is nothing that can hurt me.”

I glared, “We’ll see.”

There was a short silence before Paul said, “I’m getting a ‘we had a bad breakup’ vibe.”

My head snapped towards Paul and Alexander chortled as he said, “We’ll maybe ‘breakup’ isn’t the right word to use since she’s my Promise angel and she’ll love me for all eternity.” He sounded almost smug about it.

If I’d actually been drinking my tea I would have sprayed it all over the table in horror, “Who the hell told you that?!?”

“Language Ash.” My sister warned but I ignored her completely.

“Who told you?” I repeated my question.

“Viktor.”

I honestly didn’t know what to say so I just picked up my mug of tea and thoughtfully took a sip of it. I swallowed it easily and made a pleased sound when I didn’t gag in disgust. I was able to drink tea at least. I turned towards Caleb, “The tea is great, it’s a lot better since the last time I had some.”

Caleb held his head high, “Thanks, Ash. I’d like to think that my tea leaf drying skills are bettering as well.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at him, “I really missed you guys.”

“You didn’t have anyone in Africa?” Paul asked me carefully as he peered at me with narrowed eyes.

“I did, but things happened and I’m not sure what exactly they think of me at the moment.” I told them softly.

“What happened?” My sister questioned.

I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out. Could I just come right out and tell them that I had killed someone? Wouldn’t that be-

“She killed someone.”

I turned to look at the face of the person who’d spoken and his eyes bore right through me. “How did you know?”

Alexander broke eye contact with me, “I asked what had happened to you after you got sick and it everyone was very eager to answer my question.”

I glared at him.

“He’s kidding, right Ash?” My sister asked with an ashen face.

“I’m sorry,” I said after a while of silence, “But he’s not. I killed someone.”

“A vampire?” Caleb asked with a completely unreadable expression, “Did you kill him with your anti-vampire blood?”

I sighed, “No, h-he was human.”

“A human male who was in love with her.” Alexander chipped in with half a wicked smile on his face.

Janessa’s eyes were wide, “He attacked you?”

“Surely you were defending yourself?” Paul added cautiously.

“It was an accident.” I said and they all visibly relaxed and I heard their heart beats slow again.

“Will you tell us about it?” Janessa asked kindly, “It always helps to talk.”

“I’d actually prefer not to talk about it.” I answered instantly.

Alexander smirked and gave half a chuckle, “I would actually love to hear that story. From what I heard he was a moron.”

“He wasn’t.” I replied softly, yet firmly. “He was a wonderful person.”

Alexander’s eyes darkened ever so slightly but before he could do anything Janessa gave me a sad smile, “You really liked him didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” I admitted as I cast my eyes downwards, “I did.”

The coffee cup Alexander had been holding shattered in his hand like it was made of delicate sugar and his eyes spoke murder as he stared at me intensely. “You did?” he growled.

“What does it matter to you?” I snapped, “He’s dead now.”

“Which I am very grateful for, killer.” He countered and I flinched back.

That was harsh.

There was a long silence after that comment that was only broken when Janessa cleared her throat and after giving the broken mug a sad look said, “I take it the two of you are not comfortable to share a room?”

“Not even in hell.” I answered instantly and the scowl on Alexander’s face got even more frightening.

“Very well then,” Janessa said, clearly not seeing Alexander’s expression, “Alex is a guest here so we can’t just let him take the couch. Ash,” She said pointedly, “You’re sleeping on the comfy couch in the living room.”

I nodded thoughtfully, “I’m fine with that.” It was a really comfy couch… but wouldn’t that mean that Paul would have to share the room with him?!? That did not sound very safe to me… What if Alexander tried to kill him?!?

“I’ll go get some blankets and stuff for you.” Janessa said as she stared walking away towards the cupboard in the hall where we stored all our linen.

“Janessa!” I called out, “I’m actually fine with taking my old bed again.” I laughed nervously as I said the most random crap imaginable, “I kind of missed the ol’ springs digging into my back.” My nervous laugh continued for a moment longer before I regained control of myself.

“No way!” Paul protested, “I like my bed and there is no way I’m offering it up just because you’re back, sorry Ash.” He said with a little shrug.

I sighed deeply, if he got killed at least I knew that I tried… a little… “Very well, I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Alexander was still watching me with a dark expression and I couldn’t help but smirk a little. Who was winning this game you jerk?

I didn’t feel like I was winning though…

My chest was hurting so damn bad and it felt like I needed to cry. He was right there, but he wasn’t who I wanted him to be. He’d met my family, something I’d dreamed about for so long and they liked him, but he was planning on killing them all if I did something he didn’t approve of. I frowned.

“Why are you looking at him like that, Ash?” Paul asked and I snapped back into reality. He grinned as he made kissy faces, “Missing sucking his face off?”

“What!?” I exclaimed in horror, “What gives you that idea?!”

Paul shrugged casually, “Just the way the two of you look at one another it’s so… intense…”

I grumbled under my breath. Was my feeling of wanting to kiss him really that obvious? I turned away from them and walked to the living room where I plopped down onto the couch. I couldn’t deal with this, it felt like my brain wanted to explode or something.

Everything suddenly went dark around me and I struggled to throw all the blankets off of me. I emerged with wild hair and wild eyes to find my sister laughing at me. I glared at her, “This isn’t funny.”

She continued to laugh, “Oh it really is. I missed you Ash. I blamed myself for letting you get taken away and I knew mom and dad would have been so disappointed in me…”

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to flatten it again, “It wasn’t your fault, Ness, and mom and dad aren’t here to judge us so its fine. You didn’t your best to raise me.”

Before I knew what was happening she was sitting next to me on the couch and hugging me. “I’m sorry Ash, I don’t think I’m ever letting you go again.”

I chuckled, “I hope not.” I felt so safe with Janessa hugging me, but I knew I wasn’t because Alexander the demon was standing right there looking at us with an unreadable expression on his face. It almost looked like curiosity and pity.

Pity? Could he actually be pitting me?

The look on his face vanished the moment his eyes met mine and he turned and walked away. I frowned, what was that about?

It took Janessa and I about an hour to prepare my sleeping couch since we’d break out and have pillow fights every five minutes in which I had to hold back or I certainly would have killed her with one throw. I missed being human.

When we were finally done we stood proudly to inspect our work, “Its beautiful.” I commented and she nodded seriously.

“It truly is.” She checked her watch, “And just in time for bed time too.”

My face fell, “Already? What about dinner?”

Janessa’s face contoured in realisation, “Oh, we ate before you arrived, I’m sorry. Do you want something? I’ll make anything you want.”

I hesitated, “No, I’m still full, I was just asking…” half the truth was better than nothing.

“Very well then, goodnight. We catch up some more tomorrow.” She hugged me again before she started walking away.

“Goodnight!” I called after her as she went upstairs.

I hadn’t brought any pyjamas with me so I was wearing one of Paul’s shirts and a pair of Janessa’s pants. All in all I did not look that good. Not that I really cared, everyone else had gone to their rooms long before Janessa and I had finished.

I climbed into my makeshift bed and sunk into the pillows and heat the blankets gave. I hadn’t slept in a few days so without hesitation I closed my eyes and readied myself to drift off.

My last conscious thought was wondering is Paul would be alright and how I was going to get rid of Alexander…

I dreamed of bright colours and a weight pressing down on my chest.

My eyes flew wide open when I realised that I had not been completely asleep and that the weight on my fact was actually a person.

A very large person. A very hot and demonic person. A person who was peering down at me with bright yellow eyes.

I stared up at him, bewildered, “Part of your game?” I questioned with a shaky voice. What was he doing on top of me in the middle of the night?

Alexander growled, “Shut up kitten.” He ordered and before I could rage on about how rude he was being he kissed me. Harshly and rough.

And I loved it.

It took me less time to respond than I thought it would and before I knew it I was making out with a demon who wanted to kill me on a couch. I pulled him into me so there was no more space between us and wrapped my legs around him.

His hands slid under the shirt that was way too big for me and pulled me closer to him. “I don’t like this shirt, it smells like him.”

And so before I could protest Paul’s shirt was in ribbons on the floor. I silently thanked my lucky stars that I’d been so paranoid as to wear a bra to bed and that I wasn’t completely naked before a demon who looked like he wanted to devour me.

Alexander bit into my neck, drawing blood and he drank greedily, “This body wants you.” He said and he brought his eyes up to meet mine after a while.

My hands were shaking and I found that no words wanted to come out of my mouth. I just wanted him to kiss me again, I missed having him so close to me with that dangerous look in his eyes.

He dropped himself lower, allowing more of his weight to crush me and he hovered his mouth over mine. His mouth was mere millimetres away from mine but he didn’t make any move to close the distance, me just stared into my eyes.

“What are you?” He asked lowly as he finally kissed me deeply, slowly, causing a shiver to run down my spine as he gripped my thighs and eyed my cleavage.

“Why are you doing this to me?” He continued absentmindedly as he took hold of my head and turned it to the side so he could nip my neck again. “I want you so badly.”

I swallowed hard, preparing myself to answer.

And then the light went on.